Eulogy for Michael Prewitt

July 17, 2014

Hopewell Presbyterian Church

 

For Michael, the gospel was not a door he passed through. It was the house in which he lived.

 

I’m Curt Wilbur. Through God’s grace, my wife, Janis, and I were privileged to know Michael as a brother-in-Christ for over 30 years. He officiated at our youngest daughter’s wedding right here. There is so much I could say, but this morning I want to speak to the 4 years we served together in Montgomery Ministries.

 

In His providence, God called Michael to lead a new church development in nearby Montgomery Township in the spring of 2003 just as I retired from a business career. Michael asked Janis, me, and several others to join him. Who here has ever been able to refuse Michael’s gracious invitations to serve the Lord?

 

And Montgomery Ministries is where I came to know that, for Michael, the gospel was the house in which he lived. With Michael’s gentleness and compassion that we all have experienced, he invited everyone God placed in his path to taste and see that a life lived in the gospel was good.

 

·        Complete strangers who answered Michael’s knock on the door as we moved house to house in Montgomery neighborhoods.

·        Bruised and wounded people who miraculously just showed up to worship at Montgomery Ministries.

·        Broken and sinful people just like me and perhaps like you who needed to hear week in and week out the glorious truth of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.

·        Elderly people at Stonebridge whose bodies were no longer strong but who souls were refreshed and renewed each Sunday after worship as Michael brought them communion and God’s Word.

 

You see, Michael not only opened the door to the gospel to all whom God sent, but he invited them to live in the gospel, to live in the same house in which he lived. If you know Michael, you know this house:

·        It was always filled with the fragrant aroma of God’s grace and mercy.

·        Forgiveness was found in every room.

·        A heavenly feast of God’s Word was served continuously, often offered with vivid word pictures and stories Michael could tell so well.

·        Weary souls found deep rest and renewal in this house.

·        And, of course, living water was always “on tap.”

 

This is the Michael that I came to know at Montgomery Ministries. Yes, he proclaimed the gospel faithfully and with authority. But more importantly to all of us who have been privileged to know him, Michael brought us into the house in which he lived.

 

And praise be to God, what a house that is!